Monochrome Nature Walk birthday card

Today I had great fun running a stall at the Bucks Country Show but before I went, I just had to have a quick peek at this week's Less is More challenge. I absolutely love Mandi and Chrissie's challenges - they always get me excited! And this week is no exception: we are to produce a monochrome card.

Well, I had all day to think about it and, when I got home this evening, I snuck off and whipped this birthday card up in shades of brown:

If you're a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that this beautiful Nature Walk stamp set gets used a lot!

I stamped all the elements of this card in Early Espresso ink but coloured it in using my new watercolour pencils I bought with my birthday money! VERY excited about these!

Don't you just love this bird?! To make his eye look nice and beady, I coloured it in black pencil and then just added a dot of white gel pen.

Here's that happy birthday sentiment again! It's from Occasional Greetings and I find it really useful because it's long and wide.

Here's how to make this card:

• Take an A5 piece of Crumb Cake card stock. Score and fold it in half to make a card base.
• Mask off the top two thirds of the card front with a piece of scrap paper and sponge Crumb Cake ink across the bottom.
• Using Early Espresso ink, stamp the bird first, then the sentiment using a stamp-a-majig, then finally the plants off the left-hand edge of the card.
• Colour the images using water colour pencils, adding highlights with a white gel pen.
• Sponge the edges of the card front with Whisper White craft ink.

Supplies
Stamps: Nature Walk, Occasional Greetings
Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock:  Crumb Cake
Other: Water colour pencils, white gel pen

It looks as if the fine weather is coming to an end again so it looks like an indoors kind of a day for the last day of the half term. How quickly the holidays fly past!

Thank you for coming to see my card today - I shall look forward to returning your visit. Don't forget that I'll be back at the beginning of the week with Masculine Monday if you're looking for male card inspiration. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!